Pulp Friction

Oh, I dread every time I sit down to write about a topic I feel it’s essential to share but fear may be frightfully boring. I know sometimes it’s hard to generate excitement about mundane topics and it’s even harder to create memorable words about anything that’s just “good for you” to know.

Still, if you’ve read any of my other columns, you know I am driven by a need to make not just a better future, but a better present for all of us. So, while I present lofty topics of transportation, telework and commuting, I never lose track of those quality of life issues like community appearance, littering, graffiti and…FREE NEWSPAPERS!

You’ve seen them. Those papers lie in the street or in a yard, unloved and unwanted. People will not deign to pick them up, for after all, “I did not ask for this paper!” So, the papers lie there and they accumulate. Soon there are several. They get wet and soggy. Cars drive over them, pulp cleaves to the street. They block the rain gutters and wash into the storm drain system. They look unsightly, and perhaps the biggest sin of all is they make a vacant house a target.

How easy for those to look for a house with a dozen free papers piled in front!

Our supervisor, John Jenkins, has asked our legislative liaison, Tracy Gordon, to work with state officials to see if we can get some sort of legislation to rein in these free papers. No one wants to target a business and the businesses that advertise in the free papers certainly should not be made to suffer, but there just must be a better alternative than pitching unwanted papers on the ground for someone to pick up. (It’s even worse when papers are left for no one to pick up!)

I had asked Neighborhood Services cite the papers as they would any other litter, but they are apparently unable to do so without enabling legislation.

I will say one thing in defense of the carriers for these free papers. There is a high turnover rate of delivery persons, so it is possible that one carrier gets the memo, leaves the route and someone new takes over, putting you back to square one.

While we’re waiting for something to come down from Richmond, you can try this: contact the publisher of the paper and ask that delivery be stopped at your house if you don’t want to receive the free paper. I did send an email on September 24 and ask no more free papers be delivered to my house and the two vacant houses next to me. All three residences are still getting a free paper five weeks later.

You can look on the inside of the paper to see who publishes the free paper in your neighborhood and contact them to stop delivery. I hope you have better luck than I did!